Circular RNA Biomarkers for Heart Failure Diagnostics
circRNAs can be used in diagnostics tests, companion diagnostics or in disease development and progression, and therapeutic targets
Background
Heart failure affects more than half of the population over 65 and represents an enormous financial burden to the society. The Cardiovascular Research team of the Luxembourg Institute of Health has discovered and patented hundreds of circRNAs detectable in the blood and associated with cardiovascular conditions such as heart failure.
Circular RNAs are a class of noncoding RNAs covalently closed by a back spicing event, making them protected from degradation by exonuclease. They are tissue- and disease-specific and are detectable in the blood. They can be measured in a highly specific manner using sequencing, methods based on probe hybridization, or quantitative PCR with divergent primers. These properties confer circRNAs with valuable potential as have potential to be used in diagnostics tests, companion diagnostics or, being involved in disease development and progression, as therapeutic targets.
Technology Overview
The methodology to measure circRNAs in blood samples of patients as well as their potential to constitute a new class of biomarkers and therapeutic targets have been extensively validated and published by the LIH inventors (PMID: 27609688;28345158; 29159270; 30159434; 31986093). The association between circRNAs and heart failure has been validated in two independent cohorts in Luxembourg and Germany totalizing more than 600 patients (PMID:27609688). In particular, one circRNA named MICRA (Myocardial Infarction-associated Circular RnA) improved risk classification after myocardial infarction, supporting the added value of this novel biomarker in future prognostication strategies (PMID 29159270).
Benefits
Circular RNAs present the following advantages:
- Detectable in the blood
- Easily and accurately measurable
- Cost-effective measurement
- High potential for development of a new class of biomarkers and/or drugs
- Tissue and disease specificity
- Applicable to the clinics
- Target unmet clinical needs with high prevalence and economic burden (e.g. heart failure)
- Usable as diagnostics tests, companion diagnostics and/or therapeutic targets.